This short passage in an article (paywalled) in Haaretz focuses on a point that hasn’t been sufficiently visible in the US press. There’s been a decent amount of U.S. coverage of the increasingly violent and predatory escalation in the West Bank, in which the government has both encouraged and allowed the most violent members of the settler community to accelerate their campaign of harassment, violence and expulsions of Palestinian families and communities. But this isn’t just a broader expression of Greater Israel maximalism, though it’s also very much that. It’s also an electoral strategy, one aimed at hyper-mobilizing the settler parties in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and also creating a security crisis he hopes he will benefit from. There are many on the Israeli side who want, and are actively seeking, a severe escalation in the West Bank.